[→ Some physicists analyzed 10,000,000 words from 200 years and now understand linguistic evolution.](http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.3707v2.pdf) According to my linguist colleagues, this happens every few years. The answer is always the same: when you reduce things enough, you can make all kinds of claims. [The Language Log has more.](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3843)

I remember Andrei Codrescu pointing out in class one day that metaphors are treated as superfluous. His argument was that in repressive regimes, metaphors are communicate without appearing to say anything considered seditious. According to Wired, users of Twitter are re-discovering the power of metaphor.

Thanks to another network analysis of linguistic data — previous story [here](http://johnlaudun.org/20110414-some-possible-revisions-to-generative-linguistics/) — scholars seem to have traced the origin of language to … well, to the origin of human beings in eastern Africa. The Economist has a [write-up](http://www.economist.com/node/18557572).

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The Amazing Crawfish Boat is available at your favorite bookseller (both Amazon and B&N). I have also released some additional free materials: audio versions of some of the chapters and photos — all available for download. Details are available on the book’s page.